Star Battle Puzzle

Star Battle is a classic grid logic puzzle with one simple goal: hide stars in the grid so that every row, every column and every colored region holds exactly one. A new Star Battle appears here every day at midnight in your own time zone, and the Practice tab adds more puzzles for each of 16 size-and-difficulty combinations. Every puzzle has exactly one solution, and every one can be finished by reasoning alone — you never need to guess.

Star Battle rules

The grid is N×N — from 6×6 up to 9×9 on this site — and it is divided into N regions, each with its own color and a thick outline. Place N stars so that:

1. Each row contains exactly one star.
2. Each column contains exactly one star.
3. Each region contains exactly one star.
4. No two stars touch — not side by side, and not diagonally either.

That is the whole rule set. Because the answer is unique, the moment your stars satisfy all four rules the puzzle is solved. The game recognizes it instantly; it never compares your grid with a hidden answer while you play.

How to play here

Prefer ✕ first? Set Tap order to ✕ then ★ in the ⋯ menu. Rule conflicts show up as you play: two stars in the same row, column or region, or two stars that touch, get a red outline, a ⚠ sign and a short spoken message for screen readers. Turn on Auto-✕ to cross out every cell a new star rules out; those crosses are drawn faintly and vanish when you remove the star.

How to solve Star Battle: four levels of technique

Every puzzle is graded by a solver that uses only the four techniques below, always trying the simplest one first. A puzzle’s level is the hardest technique it needs, so a Level 2 puzzle never needs anything beyond the level 2 technique.

Level 1 — The last cell and the star’s shadow

A star rules out its whole row, its whole column, its whole region and the eight cells around it. Cross those out. Whenever a row, column or region is left with a single possible cell, the star must go there. Easy puzzles fall to this cycle alone.

Level 2 — A region trapped in one line

If every free cell of a region lies in the same row, that region’s star is in that row, so no other cell of the row can hold a star. It works for columns too, and in reverse: when a row’s free cells all belong to one region, the rest of that region is empty.

Level 3 — Counting groups of regions

This generalizes level 2. When two regions fit entirely inside two rows, those two rows spend both of their stars on them, and every other cell in those rows is empty. Three regions inside three rows, or the same with columns, works the same way. Small regions squeezed together along an edge are the usual place to look.

Level 4 — What if a star went here?

Pick a cell and imagine a star in it. Cross out everything that star would rule out. If some row, column or region is left with no possible cell, the star cannot go there, so the cell gets a ✕. This one-step test is the hardest technique used; no puzzle here needs deeper trial and error.

Daily difficulty by weekday

The daily puzzle grows through the week, so Monday is a warm-up and Sunday is the big one:

Your score is the time you took, with pauses excluded, plus the number of hints you used. Solving the daily without showing the solution keeps your streak going. Practice puzzles are recorded separately and never touch the streak, so you can try a 9×9 Level 4 on a Monday without risk.

Hints

You get three hints per puzzle. A hint first points out any star that is not part of the solution. Otherwise it highlights the next cell that logic can settle and explains why in one sentence, naming the row, column or region involved. Hints are counted in your shared result as 💡, and the shared text never shows where the stars are.

Strategy tips

• Start with the smallest regions: a region of one or two cells pins its star almost at once.
• Scan the edges and corners. Regions hugging a border are often confined to one or two lines.
• Use ✕ freely. Crossed-out cells make the last free cell of a line easy to spot.
• When you are stuck, count: k regions packed into k rows or columns is the most common breakthrough.
• Try the “what if” test on cells that touch several regions at once — a star there blocks the most.

Frequently asked questions

Is Star Battle free to play?

Yes. Every daily and practice puzzle is free, runs in any modern browser and needs no account. Your progress is stored in your own browser and, if you want, kept in step across your devices.

What time does the daily Star Battle change?

At midnight in your own time zone. The puzzle number counts the days since launch, so friends in other countries share the same number on the same calendar date.

Does every puzzle have exactly one solution?

Yes. Before a puzzle is published, an exhaustive solver proves there is exactly one solution, and a logic solver proves it can be finished with the four techniques above, without guessing.

Where does Star Battle come from?

Star Battle is a long-established genre of pencil logic puzzle that many puzzle authors and magazines publish under this name. Championship puzzles are often 10×10 with two stars per row, column and region; the one-star version here is quicker and suits a daily break.

Can I play earlier days?

Yes. Past daily puzzles are in the archive. Archive games are saved in your statistics but do not change your streak.

Does it work offline?

Once you have opened the page, the app is kept on your device. Today’s puzzle and practice puzzles you have already loaded keep working without a connection.

I am color-blind. Can I tell the regions apart?

Yes. Regions are separated by thick borders, not by color alone, and the palette is checked for red, green and blue color-vision deficiencies. Turn on Region symbols in the ⋯ menu to add a small shape such as ● ▲ ■ to every cell of each region.

Why can’t I place a star by dragging?

Dragging is reserved for ✕ marks, so a slip of the finger never drops a star by accident. Tap once to place a star, or switch the tap order so that the first tap places a ✕ instead.